To gluten or not to gluten
Hi everyone! This week is Coeliac Awareness Week, but do you know what being coeliac means? A few years ago I met a girl that was coeliac and she mentioned that there were certain foods she could not eat and how hard it was to find nice tasting food that didn’t cost the earth. Now, I can tell you a bit more about it.
Coeliac disease is an auto-immune condition. When a coeliac person eats gluten, which can be found in wheat, barley and rye, the body’s immune system reacts to it and attacks the gluten. This causes damage to the bowels and affects the body’s ability to absorb the nutrients in food.
Currently, there is only one way to stop that from happening: stop eating gluten. Coeliac’s can eat a wide variety of meat, fruit and vegetables, diary, lentils but they have to be careful with products like pasta, bread, biscuits, etc. These should always be gluten free. They also need to watch out for the hidden gluten found in other processed foods.
There are many people living with this condition (1 in 100 in the UK) but of those only 24% have been diagnosed. Researchers also think that they may be underestimating as some people with other conditions (e.g. IBS) may be missing diagnosis.
The fabulous Coeliac UK provides information, support and research on Coeliac disease, so if you have any queries it is a great website to visit.
About the tasteless pricey food, I am doing something about it. You can now shop our new range of gluten free products. The same beautifully decorated hampers and trays and lots of delicious gluten free treats. And the ultimate treat, the same price.
Are you Coeliac? Do you have any great recommendations for products you would like us to include or products you will like to share? Just leave a comment below!
4 thoughts on “To gluten or not to gluten”
Thank you for increasing awareness of Coeliac disease. The consultant gastroenterologist who diagnosed my symptoms in 2000 said that of all the diseases he has to diagnose and treat, Coeliac disease is the one he would most want if he had to have one of them (!) because it is ‘easily controlled’ through a gluten free diet. I had no idea what was in store at the time! While I’m sure the doctor has to deal with far more consequential illnesses, Coeliac disease unfortunately isn’t simply gluten intolerance but carries with it a whole range of life changing difficulties as a result of damage to the intestinal tract. We don’t really appreciate our bodies until they no longer function problem free! Thank you for writing and for searching out treats that are gluten free. I look forward to those!
Thanks for your great comments Gail. I was not fully aware of coeliac disease until I started looking into it more. It is important to raise awareness so people are diagnosed and can start living a better life.
Thanks for the awareness Vero. It’s a very good blog !!
Thanks Florence!